Monday, February 7, 2011

Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains

After an early breakfast and a good nights rest at the Sawtooth Hotel we got into our cars and made the short drive to the Redfish Lake trail head. We put on our skins and loaded up three make shift sleds to pull the bulk of our winter sleeping gear into the Bench Hut.

This 6 mile skin that gained 1600" of vert was fun and rather easy as the stoke grew around every hill and bend in the trail.

We made a quick stop at the Bench Hut to learn Sun Valley Trekkings ways while the guide was still with us. We all had a quick snack and repacked for a mid day ski tour.

We made our way up from the hut and this was one of the first peaks to show itself.

The Grand Mogul and its Boy Scout Couloir!!!

This was on the tick list.

It was getting late in the day so we did a fun but mellow ski down to the Redfish Lake.

We set a skinner back up to the hut, started the wood stoves and got dinner and the wood fired Sauna going.

The next morning we of course already had Couloirs that we knew about and had set as goals. This is Hayburn's north facing shot. It also has a south facing shot that goes from the same saddle. Yes, we Hayburned X2 up this one to ski the south side all the way down to Redfish Lake. Traversed the lake to the skinner we set the day before back to the hut just before dark.

Here's a pic I took looking down the north facing side of Heyburn.

The next day the light was much better and we had our sights set on the Boy Scout Couloir. We all skinned up from the hut to a low peak of Heyburn Mountain that had 2000' slide paths that skied to the lake. After crossing the lake we began the skin to the base of the Grand Mogul.

We had done some research on the Boy Scout and knew there was some kind of chalk stone that kept the weak from its summit. We had looked from all the angles we could and never got a glimpse of it until booting up and into the Crux.

In this pic you can see the massive rock that would test our skills.

If you look close you can see Redfish lake just behind my skis.

A few hundred feet more to go until the chalk stone.

Twin brothers (wombmates) Bret and Stefan Beattie had this sketchy pitch under control. I wanted in but Stefan, a long time rock and ice climber, really wanted this one and he got it.

Once the wombmates made it up the crux, our group of nine had turned into four. The rest skied the powder in the lower Couloir. Brennan and I made our way up the crux. The three of them worked on an anchor for the way down while I set the booter to the top.

This pic shows Stefan half way down the upper Snow field of the Boy Scout.

There were some bolted anchors that we found under the snow aways above the chalk stone. The rope we had was a bit to short and we had to down climb the last ten feet. This took some time and it was getting dark quickly.

After we all got off the rock, back into our skis, and the rope packed back away it was really getting dark. The ski down the rest of Boy Scout to the Lake, the traverse across the lake, and the hike up our old skinner back to the Bench Hut was all done with headlamps.

The next morning we packed our gear and got ready for the move to the Fishhook Yurt.

We were very pleased to ski a Couloir called the Gun Barrel with our over sized packs, to which we strapped the sleds. Also very pleased to get to the yurt and get wood stoves and dinner going.

The small red arrow points to our last Couloir. The Sickle Couloir on Hortsmann Peak. The next on the list, and our objective for the last day in the Sawtooth Mountains.

This is a picture I took on hike up to the Sickle.

Another long steep booter to the top.

After a great week of skiing in the Sawtooths we were in a rush to get back to Salt Lake. So we made quick work of the Sickle's steep narrow top and shredded back down to the Fishhook Yurt. There, we cleaned up and packed our bags for the long, mostly flat, trek out to the road.

Oh yeah, here are the wombmates getting ready to ski down just after me.

Brennan taking a moment to look around at the beauty as we wait for the wombmates.

The setting sun as we skate out Redfish Lake road to Highway 75.

The full crew back in Stanley Idaho having a quick bite and a few beers before we part ways.

A parting shot from the Sawtooth Hotel. A sitting nook that leans you against the warm chimney.

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